Ilias laughed a little when she said that.

"Heh, fair." he said.

--

Hal was silent as he sifted through some papers, and then looked at his computer screen, entering some info, and checking the results that showed up. He scanned then for a moment, before nodding.

"Seems right." he said.

"Agent Willow should be back soon, and I need her to..." he continued, talking to himself, his voice turning into a murmur, before his secretary buzzed him.

"Doctor Edwards here to see you." she said.

"Send her in." he responded, before continuing to check what was on the screen.

Hal seemed to pause when he heard that, and set his papers down.

He then turned away from the screen, and looked at her sternly.

He silently offered her a seat, before speaking.

"Very well, then." he said.

"What is this about?" he asked her.

"Because given that criteria, I can only assume this is about Kiah." he reasoned. "If it isn't feel free to correct me." he went on.

"But please... do tell me what this is about." he reiterated.

"...unconscious." Hal responded.

"Is... that all we know?" he asked.

"What were the circumstances behind this? Did anyone witness this? How long has she been unconscious for? Is she injured? Are any abnormalities showing up in scans and such?" he asked her further.

"Please, do NOT hold back any info." he continued.

"Tell me ALL you know." he said.

"...or is that everything?" he then inquired.

"And is she at least stable?"

Hal was silent for a moment, before growling slightly.

"Great." he said.

He then paused and calmed himself down, collecting his thoughts and making sure he didn't get unnecessarily angry.

"Perhaps it's just overwork." he sighed.

"She HAS been going at it for a bit." he reasoned.

"Perhaps it's finally come back to bite her."

Hal nodded.

"Thank you for informing me." he said.

"Please keep me up to date." he told her.

He then paused for a moment, and sighed, shaking his head a little.

"And thank you for getting Rylie in to keep Ilias calm." he said. "Lord knows the boy will implode from the stress and concern he'll be feeling." he commented further.

"He's utterly devoted to her."

"You do that." Hal responded.

"And here's hoping they manage to keep Ilias in check." he said.

"I'm sure the R&D department will get along fine without them for a bit." he commented.

"Let me know of any updates." he said further.

"And if there's anything I can do to help."

"I concur." Hal responded.

"The fact that this happened so suddenly, without warning is... well, it's concerning, to understate it." he commented. "I don't think anything like this has ever happened to her before..." he went on, before pausing.

"Wait... twice, I think." he then said.

"And both were due to overworking, but we could all see it coming a mile away." he lamented. "Sadly, she was being so stubborn, that we just had to wait for her to collapse from exhaustion." he went on, sounding unimpressed.

"Thankfully, after that second time, she seemed to learn her lesson." he then said further.

"Regardless, I am going to check the records of the R&D department, and see if anything they've been recently working on can lead to a clue of sorts." he told her.

Hal watched her go, and sighed when she left.

"...Kiah..." he muttered.

"Please let this be nothing. I don't want to have to share any bad news with the family." he said further, shaking his head.

---

The one she'd been playing just smirked slightly.

"Well... ah..." he said, pausing to think about it.

"There's a long and lengthy technical explanation, or there's a short one that's... funny, but not helpful at all." he told her.

"What's the second one?" another make asked, taking a sip of soda.

"I learned how to 'git gud'." the first one stated.

Again, the one that had been playing smirked.

"See... that's your problem." he said.

"You had her decode the GAME. The SOFTWARE." he told her.

"The trick's in the hardware?" the second male asked.

"Specifically, some button timing and inputs." the first one responded, before picking up the controller that Rylie had thrown down. He then showed her a couple of things, having her watch his hand movements closely.

"That causes a few frame skips ahead, causing you to jut out that little bit in front of other racers." he explained. "And hitting this button as soon as you land off a ramp stops the drag for that second or two, allowing you to 'hit the ground running', so to speak." he added.

"Doing this consistently can really give you a lead, and allow for more forgiveness when making mistakes."

Ilias just rolled his eyes.

"I'm just using quirks in the hardware that the company made themselves and licensed, and put out for sale." he told her. "Kinda like what speed-runners do to shave those seconds or microseconds off their end times." he said.

"Would it work on any other controller or platform?" Emerald asked.

"Probably not." Ilias responded. "Other controllers are wired a little differently, buttons have those small differences, that sort of thing." he told him. "I learned it from Leo." he added.

"Does it work with other games?" Emerald asked further.

"Depends on the game." Ilias said. "Racers and platformers, sure. Brawlers, fighters, and RPGs? Nah." he went on.